Manual processes, siloed data and outdated tools can slow down even the most experienced sales reps, leaving untapped revenue on the table. Enter AI: The technology is changing how distributors sell, automating routine tasks and enabling smarter decisions, quicker responses and better customer insights.
Distribution Strategy Group’s Ian Heller hosted a panel featuring industry experts who tackled the topic of AI’s impact on sales productivity. Panelists included:
- Paul Farrell, Chief Product Officer, Sugar CRM
- Seamus Diamond, Vice President, Product Development and eCommerce, ECI
- Mark Gilham, Vice President, Rebate Strategy, Enable
- John Murcott, Executive Vice President, Product and Strategy, Bridgeline
If you missed the webinar, you can find it on-demand it here.
Here are ways AI is increasing sales productivity in distribution:
Empowering Sales Reps at Every Level
AI democratizes selling to level the playing field. “A lot of people now don’t even need to be an expert in something; they can be credible very quickly because of AI,” Gilham said.
He said that AI helps the end-user by answering their question, but it also helps on the front end by supplying the rep with the right questions to ask. “From a technology perspective, it’s redefining how people interact with software. It’s exciting but also certainly unchartered territory for many.”
Diamond agreed. “AI allows the salesperson to see what they could see before in the ERP and what the customer searched for in the storefront. So that if I’m engaging in a customer conversation, I can be more meaningful and deliberate.”
Farrell said to do this, the technology must be designed for the reps for the task they want to accomplish.
“AI can have different prompts that drive smart response interactions,” said Murcott. “If the person is technical with industry experience, the information from your system might be different.”
Making Everyday Customer Interactions More Efficient
Farrell said that AI drives greater efficiency at the interaction point between the rep and the buyer. “It allows the sales rep to make the most of their time with customers.”
Recognizing that many customers do prefer to spend time researching before they reach out to talk to a sales rep, distributors should want to make the most of that interaction so they can get the customer on their way. “You focus on value and minimize that dead time.”
Many of the AI tools available today to support the sales process offer the ability to personalize your approach based on the buying channel, customer history and behaviors.
For example, AI can hone search on an ecommerce website for a more intuitive and effective process, Murcott said. “It’s not search results coming back from your product catalog, it’s search analytics.” That means far more relevant results for your customers, who whether they reach out to a sales rep to order or not, stay put longer and feel more satisfied with their experience.
Uncovering Opportunities to Grow Margin
AI can spot patterns humans struggle to discern. For example: rebate management. Gilham described a typical scenario:
“When you ask, ‘How much of your contract is earning rebate?’ procurement people respond, ‘Oh, everything.’ Distributors need to look at this because 20% of everything they buy probably doesn’t earn a rebate.
“When you present them with that information, they’re shocked.”
The 20% represents a missed opportunity – an area where money is being left on the table. It could be the result of errors in tracking, failure to meet volume requirements or non-qualifying products. AI can help uncover the gaps and ensure that all opportunities are captured.
Beyond just rebates, AI can help to reveal where a distributor is losing money in ways we couldn’t see before. “It can look at far more data points than we can,” Gilham said. “How do you articulate death by a thousand cuts? The beauty of AI is it can look at all of that in one go and not leave you with a headache that’ll last for a week.”
Overcoming Sales Team Reluctance Around AI
Diamond said that few distributors have reached the level of sales efficiency that AI can provide. “I think it’s a mixed bag. Management knows they need to have those things, they understand that.” However, managers also recognize salespeople’s reluctance to implement AI-powered tools.
Diamond suggested distributors closely monitor where sales teams buy into the need for these solutions and then lean in. “Are you using AI daily to make you more effective? If not, be encouraging and celebrate the wins.”
Gillham believes any lingering reluctance to adopt AI comes down to one significant question: Are you a salesperson or an order-taker? “If you’re an order-taker, AI is a threat and a competitor. I came from building materials, where the customer emails an order, and the sales team spent hours converting that into a quote. That is not sales. That’s order-taking, and AI can do that.”
The benefit of AI is that it frees people up from those tedious tasks to manage relationships and become trusted customer advisors.
The ROI of AI in Sales
Heller countered the myth that AI might not take jobs with what he believes is a more realistic but uncomfortable truth: “Maybe you won’t lay anyone off, but with AI, you’ll need fewer people to do the job.”
Diamond agreed: “Growth-minded businesses will not have that problem. They need a more effective workforce, and that’s what AI addresses.”
Gilham sees AI as making business more human-centered, not less. “People expect AI to create efficiencies and reduce our reliance on people.” And given that most distributors struggle with staffing challenges, AI could help mitigate this challenge. But Gilham said AI could “stop us from sitting in front of computer screens for eight hours, which means we spend more time interacting with each other. That’s a much nicer outlook on how AI can help us.”
Did you miss the webinar? Watch it on-demand.
